Improvement in current water-wheels



y UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AND JOSIAH C. RICHARDS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CURRENT WATER-WHEELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 11.816, dated March 1, 1864.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be. it known that I, JEROME B. HOWE, of Middleville, in the county of Barry and State of Michigan, have invented a new and Useful Current Tater-Wheel for Driving any kind of Machinery; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawing, making a part of this specification, in which the figure is a perspective view.

The nature of my invention consists in pro vidin g a motive power for propelling machincry by water without constructing a dam, and in which the difficulties of high water, oodwood, floating ice, and freezing are overcome. The followingis a description of the wheel and its operation:

I construct a platform of timber in the bed of a river or any stream of water, in the center of which I erect a perpendicular wooden shaft, A, upon the lower end of which is asteel pivot resting in a steel socket. The shaft maybe of any required length. The upper end is held in its place by means of braces extending to the bank of the stream and securely fastened. Beneath the surface of the water arms a are inserted in the shaft, equal in length, extending from the shaft in a horizontal position.v Drawn around upon these arms, at the end of them, is a band or circle, B, of wood or iron, which is securely bolted to each arm. Upon one side of each arm a bucket or fan, d, simply a plain board or plank, is hung upon hinges lL or hooks and eyes of iron; and upon one side of each bucketor fan a brace, e, is fastened to the underside ofthe rim or band B, so that the bucket or fan asithangs perpendicularly from the arm is supported by the bracein that position, and can only swing up and away from the brace e.

The wheel being constructed and set in the current of water, the fans or buckets of one side of the wheel are swung back and up behind the arms t and away from the braces c, leaving no obstruction to the free passage of the current of water on that side of the wheel, while upon the opposite side of the wheel the buckets drop down against the braces e, and

are supported by them in that position, while.

the current of Water pressing' against the fans causes the wheel to revolve with all the force and power of the current driving against the fans or buckets upon nearly one half of the wheel. As each fan or bucket is carried around bythe force of the current, and begins to move up the stream, the force ofthe current swings it up behind the arm a, where it remains until it reaches the point where it begins tomove down the stream, when it drops down again against the brace e, and remains in that position until it reaches the point where it again begins to more up the stream.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In the construction ofasubmergedrverticalshaft current water-wheel, the combination of the hinged buckets d dand braces c e, arranged and operating substantially as and for the purposes herein specified. v

JEROME B. I-IOWE. Witnesses HARVEY WEIGHT, GEo. Ennis. 

